Laced with extravagance, the Chivas 18 Alchemy recently brought forth five illustrious alchemists from across the lifestyle space to enthrall Delhi with an exquisite experience. The five maestros—Bollywood actor Malaika Arora, artist Sudarshan Shetty, jeweller Siddharth Kasliwal and fashion designers Manish Malhotra and Rahul Mishra, curated an unparalleled amalgam of craftsmanship and elegance with unusual creative expressions dealing with Fantasy, Intuition, Love, Déja vu and Memory.
Describing the experience, Kartik Mohindra, chief marketing officer, Pernod Ricard India, said, “Chivas Alchemy is an extra-sensorial experience, rooted in curating the extraordinary. Through this collaboration with five stellar artistes, Chivas Alchemy has brought alive, sublime interpretations of the sixth sense. This is an ode to the multi-layered blend of Chivas 18 that rewards the senses with its unique 85 flavour notes.”
Fantasy: Wonderland inside a Drop
The conjurer—Malaika Arora— created a shifting, immersive, honeycombed kaleidoscopic world of the real and imagined. Talking about the project, she said, “It’s a really interesting collaboration. One thing I have seen over the years with Chivas 18 is that it truly experiments with fashion and its various aspects. The people that they bring on board always add something new to the whole idea of Chivas 18 Alchemy. Even this year, the idea of sixth sense was very interesting and I love every bit of it.”
Intuition: A Play of Perceptions
Stimulating intuition, designer Manish Malhotra dabbed into amber depths to paint a mirage of visions with mirrors and reflections that were at once fleeting, lasting, diffused, spontaneous and startling in clarity. How did the association come about? “We spoke of intuition as a sense. I feel in my life and in my career, intuition has played a very important role. I remember two years ago doing a show with Bollywood actors Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt, where the entire backdrop was multiple strips of mirrors. The kind of lighting that you get, the reflections that it makes, it completely bowled me over. I have always loved mirrors: My house is full of mirrors and my new store also has a lot of mirrors. So I wanted to create an entire centrepiece around that. It’s all about reflection.”
Love
Of Love, Loss and Longing
Decoding the labour of love, artist Sudarshan Shetty creates interplay of classical music and film. A dining table with six chairs is placed under an elaborate chandelier. Four singers come on, one at a time, and sing a bandish—some of which dates back 500 years. In front of the screen, Sudarshan has place the real table, from the film, over which the real chandelier is presented in a state of mid-collapse. “I was trying to explore the various ways in which love is represented in the world. My art stems from my need to challenge the social role of an artist itself,” he said.
Déja vu: Precious Gems of Inspiration
Deciphering the world of déja vu, jeweller Siddharth Kasliwal’s masterpiece revived the lost art of craftsmanship handed down by generations, paving a way for bringing lost legacies to life. He explained, “The collaboration is all about sustaining craftsmanship and legacy. Chivas has great legacy and so does my company, The Gem Palace. The idea behind my creation was to showcase the labour of love and passion. No machines or modern technology has been used. This is jaali work and we have used precious and semi-precious stones. The whole idea behind this collaboration was to bring India on the global platform and to show what our craftsmanship is all about.”
Memory: Elliptical Rings of Then and Now
Designer Rahul Mishra used tambour frame hoops to create a chandelier of memories in a play of light and shadows that blend layers of time. The internationally acclaimed designer revealed, “Memories are the biggest things that shape the conscience of every human being. They are the most intimate things which people own. No two people can have the same memories. It’s something very personal, yet very open. I wanted to bring out in people this particular emotion that is common to all yet deeply personal and exclusive.”